not for his capacity to consume…

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There are many great resources about Austrian economics on the Mises Institute site. I’m just picking something that sounds like it might have basic information geared to someone just getting into this. As I find passages that are interesting, I transcribe them and post them. Unfortunately, most of the documents are in PDF format and therefore, horrible to read online, so progress is slow.

As long as men continue to view goods and services as a package of labor or the sum of the costs of production, they will continue to turn to government for subsidies, handouts, privileges, guaranteed incomes and the like. The more this is done, the less chance there is to trade for gain in the open market – the only system of pricing that conserves rather than wastes scare resources. Chief and foremost among those scarce resources is man, not for his capacity to consume as the socialists imply, but for his productive power to serve himself by serving others.

Valuing man for his capacity to consume is no longer limited to socialists. The Democrats have long been for subsidies, handouts, privileges, guaranteed incomes and the like. Even the current Republican administration is on this consumption-advocating bandwagon. We have come a long way since this document was published in 1974.

But on the bright side, there is a way out of this mess – trade for gain in the open market – the only system of pricing that conserves rather than wastes scare resources … [man’s] productive power to serve himself by serving others.